


A 750K Love

by AwokenMonster



Category: Are You The One? (Season 8), Are you the one?
Genre: Bittersweet, Established Relationship, Jax stans, Love, M/M, Sexually Fluid WW3, post-AYTO
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-08
Packaged: 2020-08-13 04:44:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20168356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwokenMonster/pseuds/AwokenMonster
Summary: “I saw what happened while I was asleep”, Justin began. “Sexually Fluid WW3.”Max finally cracked a smile at that. “She’s just been-… You know she’s been throwing shade at us from day one, right? Hating on Jax?”“Probably because I stole her perfect match”, Justin offered.Justin/MaxRated T for the show's nature





	A 750K Love

**Author's Note:**

> Monster: Hi guys! Yeah, this is my fifth AYTO work (and 60th AO3 work, thank you) inspired by the little warfare Max had going on while I was sleeping. Anyway, I wrote this entire thing listening to Can't Help Falling In Love (dark version) which is kind of amazing to listen to when writing about a love that was doomed (not that Jax is doomed but the house didn't want any of it from the start). Enjoy!
> 
> No hate to Kari and no, I don't feel like she personally attacked him but I described it a little worse for the purposes of the storyline.

Justin arched an eyebrow, scrolling down the Twitter feed that seemed to have blown up. What the fuck was the source of this drama? So much hate on Max, so much Jax fans rushing in to watch the drama unravel and other fans coming to attack the Jaxnation. Justin rolled his eyes at some of the toxic comments. Like, you don’t know the people in the house personally so try to back off when shit gets personal, please. You’re allowed to comment, but don’t try to fight their battle, you know.

Justin saw his tag blowing up, people telling him to fight for his man. It made him grin because by now, he knew exactly who they were referring to with “your man” and Justin was starting to associate Max with such terms of endearment.

He’d never thought of calling Max anything. He’d called him “princess” once before Queer Prom. Max had called him “my mans” and “my boyfriend” at some point but they only seemed to call each other by anything else than their names when they weren’t serious.

Justin eventually found the source of all the hate; Max called out Kari’s comment on how their feelings weren’t worth shit compared to the maths. A horrible thing to say, especially coming from Kari. Of course, Max knew she was talking about him and Justin. It wasn’t hard to guess after everything that went down between all of them…

Justin still felt shivers down his spine when he remembered.

He remembered falling in love with Max, not wanting to admit it as long as they were an unconfirmed match but he was absolutely crazy for Max and Max returned the feelings. They had to be a perfect match!

No one in the house believed them, no one supported them – except for the Remy rock – Justin thought with a grin. Oh Paige and her awesome quotes.

Anyway, Jax got bashed for being together. No one seemed to recognize their connection as a real one.

Including the matchmakers.

Justin stared at the screen of his phone, scrolling up and down to read it all. Max was genuinely upset with Kari, he could tell. She attacked him, probably because it was their fault for ruining the matchup ceremony. At the final matchup ceremony, the entire house came up with a strategy. Stick with the strategy and you’ll win the 750k dollars.

That was the plan.

Though strategy meant that Max had to pick Kari and Justin had to pick Kylie. They didn’t agree on that. Max knew that if he had to play with his heart, that he couldn’t pick Kari.

So he’d been stubborn and he had picked Justin. Because of this, Kari and Kylie had to improvise as they were a confirmed no match and they couldn’t sit together. They eventually picked someone else.

And they lost.

Because in fact, Kari was Max’ perfect match and Kylie was Justin’s. When only four beams lit up and Terrence had told them they lost, Max had still felt a deep trust in his feelings for Justin. When Max had picked him, Justin had felt confident, but as soon as they lost, he knew they’d been wrong.

Max knew for sure someone else messed up but seemed to fall from the sky when Terrence made them sit next to their perfect match. Justin could feel Max staring at him from the other matchup seat.

To the house, the disappointment had been losing the money.

To Max and Justin, the disappointment had been even greater as they had been wrong for 10 weeks. They hadn’t spoken since they lost. Max had been too ashamed to talk, Justin guessed.

Justin was thrilled to know who his perfect match was, but it felt off. He could see why he matched Kylie and what the matchmakers had envisioned but with every conversation, he felt a little further away from finding love. He still had Max on his mind and wondered what had been so wrong between them that the matchmakers hadn’t seen them as perfect together. Though after trying to connect with Kylie, Justin quickly decided to tell her they should just remain as friends and it had been that way ever since.

Justin sighed. Max had been Kari’s perfect match and now they were at each other’s throat on Twitter.

After Justin had told Kylie to remain friends, he had reconnected with Max. Mainly because of the Jaxnation constantly talking to them, about them and wanting to see more Jax appear on their feed. Justin had carefully tried to slip back into what he had with Max and Max seemed more than willing to accept him back in his life.

It was sad, really, because for Max it had been the same story. He had talked to Kari, tried to connect with her, seen why they were a match and eventually parted ways as friends because Max couldn’t shake the feeling that he lost the love he had found.

What started out as a beautiful romance, was now a tragedy. Justin rubbed his eyes, sending out a quick tweet to show Max some support without attacking Kari. At least it would make Max feel better because it contained “bae” and “my man”. Max was weak for little pet names because when you live as far apart as they did – and weren’t allowed to show that they were together – you need to be happy with what you get when it comes to affection.

Though as soon as Justin had sent out the tweet, he got a call to FaceTime. It was around noon, as he was still in London so he walked off to one of the rooms of the relatives and answered the call. He’d gotten used to Max’ new look with the bleach blonde hair and a more prominent beard but it still took his breath away when he saw him again. “Hey.”

Max lay somewhere, on his bed maybe but he pouted at the camera, hand going through his hair. “Heey.”

“I saw what happened while I was asleep”, Justin began. “Sexually Fluid World War Three.”

Max finally cracked a smile at that. “She’s just been-… You know she’s been throwing shade at us from day one, right? Hating on Jax?”

“Probably because I stole her perfect match”, Justin offered.

“And I stole our 750k”, Max muttered. “I should’ve just stuck with the strategy instead of being so stubborn.”

“You’re petty. We all knew you’d never follow what you didn’t feel”, Justin hushed him, pausing. “At least, _I_ knew.”

Max hummed. “How long you staying in London again?”

“I’m supposed to fly home this evening”, Justin replied, earning a little groan of frustration. Max shifted to lay on his stomach and rested his chin on his hand. “Aaand when are you coming over?”

“Won’t be too long, princess, I promise”, Justin cooed, earning at least half a smile. “I see you’ve been really moody all day on Twitter though. Wanna talk about it?”

Max shrugged. “Woke up to a fuckton of hate because of my ‘possessive behaviour’ on last night’s episode and I wasn’t having any of it. Like come on, are they really lynching me for keeping my mouth shut and _not_ _smiling_ while you shoved your tongue down everyone’s throat?”

“You know how some people are. They think they know you from a few episodes and want to get involved right away. They don’t know you”, Justin sighed, feeling the overwhelming need to pull Max close against him and lean his forehead against his. The most effective ways to calm down Max had been with love and care and never by telling him that what he thought or said or did, was stupid.

It was like Max could read his mind when he said: “I wish I could hug you right now.”

“Me too, Max”, Justin whispered, more to himself than to Max.

“Who knew your love was worth 750k”, Max tried to joke but Justin could tell he lived with a lot of guilt. Guilt he had to shove down into a dark hole so no one would notice. He had to wear a smile, only show how he felt about things that had already been revealed – like the kissing game. Max had been acting out to relieve the guilt inside by giving salty remarks about the kisses with other people in the house. Justin didn’t mind. He’d give anything to make Max feel a little better.

He knew that if he’d been the one to pick his match before Max at the final matchup, that he would’ve probably made the _exact same decision_.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment, they're our heavy fuel!
> 
> A fuckload of thanks to phoeniz07 for offering me the Jax IG Live videos cause it definitely helped me get a better grip on their personalities and post-AYTO interactions. I totally haven't watched it 4 times......


End file.
